Breeders’ Cup Turf: Course condition the big question for Golden Horn

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jockey Frankie Dettori said Golden Horn felt good in a training-track gallop Wednesday at Keeneland, but a larger question is how the Keeneland grass course will feel Saturday in the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf, intended to be Golden Horn’s swan song before a stud career.

The 3-year-old Golden Horn, the winner of the English Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe during a fantastic 2015 campaign, prefers racing on firmer turf, and persistent rain here this week had turned the grass course soft as of Wednesday morning. Dettori said the course was good to soft when he rode a horse over it during training Tuesday, but more than 1 1/4 inches of rain fell between the end of training Tuesday and the opening of the turf course for training Wednesday. Jockey Kieren Fallon rode two Wesley Ward-trained horses on the grass Wednesday and told Ward the course was soft.

The good news is that the rain was forecast to subside into Wednesday night, and Thursday was to be sunny and dry. Ward, who has kept a string of horses here at Keeneland for years, predicted the quick-draining sand-based course would be rated “good” for Breeders’ Cup races.

“It won’t be firm; there’s no chance of that,” Ward said. “But it won’t be soft.”

Dettori has heard the same thing about the course and thinks things will work out for Golden Horn

“All the people that I know say that as long as they get 48 hours drying, then it goes back to normal,” Dettori said Wednesday. “If it was like yesterday, it would be fine for him, but we’ve had a lot more rain since. Listen, we can’t change it – it is what it is. He handles good to soft ground.”

Golden Horn went a decent pace galloping counterclockwise on the small Polytrack training track after going through lighter exercise Tuesday, his first day out of quarantine.

“It’s his first canter here, and obviously everything’s new to him, but he’s a quick learner, and I see no problems this morning,” Dettori said. “I’m very pleased. He’s in good form. He’s a very placid horse, he takes everything quite well, and that’s what you need to come to a race like this.”